Several types of scanning apparatus for scanning negative still and motion picture films are known and currently used by photographic labs. Eastman Kodak Company now offers a PIW 2200 system which uses a Kodak 2000 scanner having a flat gate for handling film strips and slides to digitize an excellent high resolution image for storage on a compact disc. This scanner cannot handle continuous rolls of film as would be desirable for large numbers of orders. Another type of scanner uses a drum for scanning motion picture film. Other types of drum scanners are known for scanning continuous rolls of film or single negative, although no drum scanner does both. In addition, screw-driven flat bed scanners are known. All of the known scanners have, however, limitations in terms of their versatility in that they are not capable of providing a high resolution scan while, at the same time, avoiding the need for interchangeability for handling first order and reorders for photographic processing labs.
In a known scanning apparatus for digitizing the images on photographic film, a circular drum is used as the gate and has several arcuate portions disposed thereover for handling first order runs consisting of twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six exposures which are spliced, and reorder using the Kodak paper laminate standard and the URS paper laminate standard. It has been found, however, that such a drum is unnecessarily complicated and requires an undesirable space to accommodate the entire drum for handling the different formats. In addition, the movement of the gate is not minimized to perform the scanning operation.